Fintech accelerator Expert Dojo, a former client of Silicon Valley Bank, moved some of its deposits to First Republic Bank in March to strengthen the bank’s deposits and help avoid a similar fate to SVB — which was ultimately unsuccessful. 

In the blog “Taking a Stand for Regional Banks: Expert Dojo Will Be Depositing Money in First Republic Bank,” written in March by Expert Dojo founder and Chief Executive Brian Mac Mahon, he said the company would be depositing some of its funds into the regional bank and urged its clients to do the same to support regional banks, noting, “Deposits of under 250k are insured and protected, so the downside is limited.”

Expert Dojo’s deposits are currently in a different bank and its portfolio’s deposits are safe, Mac Mahon told Bank Automation News, noting, “We did our best to champion [FRB’s] existence as we will always do for our friends and partners who should be supported in their difficult time.”

For San Francisco-based First Republic Bank, these efforts ended up falling flat, and one of Expert Dojo’s startup clients, software-as-a-service platform Pulse360, is reconsidering its own banking relationship with a smaller institution, founder and Chief Executive Anand Sheth told BAN.  

First Republic was forced into a sale to JPMorgan Chase today as a result of First Republic’s floundering financials.

“We did not bank with [First Republic]. However, certainly, this is a cause for concern about our banking relationship. We are evaluating whether we should transfer funds from the current bank to another larger bank,” Sheth said. He did not disclose Pulse360’s current banking partner. 

Expert Dojo startups 

According to Crunchbase, the Santa Monica, Calif.-based accelerator invested in 268 companies, including the following fintechs: 

• Plano, Texas-based accounting software company Profit Matters; 
• New York-based cashback platform Benjamin; 
• Seattle-based investment platform Aghaz; 
• Playa Visa, Calif.-based transactional blockchain company MyMarkit; and 
• Dover, Del.-based market prediction app Value Network. 

Expert Dojo did not disclose how much it had deposited into First Republic.